In 1969, President Nixon instituted the policy of ‘Vietnamization’ of the war, shifting responsibilities from US troops to the South Vietnamese in preparation for the day that the US could declare victory and go home. A couple of years later, the Snake Platoon and the rest of the 101st Radio Research Company would get orders to fold their tents, break camp, and go to the house. In late January 1971, we got orders to cancel all new missions and turn our efforts to inventorying and packing equipment. There was, however, a short mission in February to Dalat; and in March, teams went to Cam Ranh and Qui Nhon for a few days.
In November 1971, the Snake Platoon removed itself from Nha Trang and joined up with the rest of the company in Bien Hoa. Bill Fraley tells us that the move from Nha Trang to Bien Hoa was determined to be mostly a logistical effort and more suitable for the NCOs than for officers. As a result of this determination, and as the Snake Platoon was leaving Nha Trang in November 1971, Fraley was reassigned to MACV in Saigon to work on Operation Purple Dragon. This was a multiagency, multi-disciplined team formed to study the problems in Operations Security (OPSEC) and COMSEC in Vietnam. This team, which was a very big deal, included members from the National Security Agency, Joint Chiefs of Staff, A S A and like organizations of the Air Force and Navy. Purple Dragon is discussed in some detail in the report entitled, “Remembering the Lessons from the Vietnam War” written by Sharon A. Mineki. This report, which is linked to as other reading material on the Explore Some More page, was originally classified SECRET//COMINT//X1 but has been declassified and was authorized for release by NSA in September, 2009.
Fraley didn’t get to stay in Saigon very long, though. Thirty days after his arrival, he was sent to Bien Hoa to become the Commanding Officer of the 101st RRC. (You can run, but you can’t hide.) The previous CO had been medevacked and would not be returning. He did survive.
Moving the snakes to Bien Hoa on an Air Force flight took some chicanery, at which the Snake Platoon members were fairly adept. The snakes were put into a wooden foot locker which was plastered with ‘SECRET’ coversheets to ward off inspection and prying eyes, and a couple of the guys had orders making them classified couriers. The story goes that, on arrival in Bien Hoa and release from the foot locker, SMAJ was perturbed. Jim Garin figured that a cool shower would settle her down, so he took her to the showers and was promptly bitten. No good deed goes unpunished. Soon, though, the snakes had their own cage and resumed the pampered lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.
Following the consolidation of the company, there were still missions to be run, primarily in the Saigon area, but the level of operations diminished as the men began grumbling that the operations were eating into the time needed to sort out records and to prepare equipment and turn it in. LT Fraley says that, with the end of his tour approaching, he turned down a couple of tasks that would have required helicopter travel, but nobody seemed to care.
Glenn Sanada recalls having guard duty one night on the perimeter. I don’t know who did this in Nha Trang, but it wasn’t us. (Did we even have perimeter guards in Nha Trang?) He says that the three in the guard tower had an M-16, an M-79 grenade launcher, and an M-60 machine gun. They took turns, two at a time while one slept, looking out on a field of concertina wire and Claymore anti-personnel mines.
Jerry Adams, of the 3rd Platoon, says he opened a CONEX container one day and found stuff he assumed came in with the 2nd Platoon. Included were two outboard motors, at least one commercial beer/soda cooler, and numerous off-the-books weapons.
On April 1, 1972, the 101st Radio Research Company stood down. The COMSEC mission in Vietnam was over. Over the next few weeks, the men who still had time remaining on their tours were redeployed.
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